Beshear in Iowa: ‘I’d be eager for the chance to debate’ JD Vance
If he is chosen as Kamala Harris’ running mate, Gov. Andy Beshear said he’d be looking forward to debating Republican VP candidate JD Vance.
“I’d be eager for the chance to debate him, just like I know the vice president is eager to debate former President Trump,” Beshear said in an interview with the Des Moines Register before he spoke at an Iowa fundraiser Saturday night.
Beshear later told a sold-out crowd at the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual Liberty and Justice Celebration event in Des Moines that women’s rights, economic recovery, the House and Senate and “the future of our sacred democracy are on the line” in the upcoming election.
He also used the forum, one of the most prominent political events for Democrats in the Hawkeye State, to tout his own accomplishments and values as the two-term governor in Kentucky. Beshear artfully shared his support for unions, public education, a woman’s reproductive rights, gay marriage and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
All are key issues in the Harris campaign, and Beshear’s views align with the vice president who is about three weeks away from formally earning the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago.
Beshear is one of several potential vice presidential candidates being vetted to run alongside Harris in her presidential campaign, and he spent much of his time on the stage Saturday night praising her.
As a former state attorney general like Harris, Beshear said “attorneys general know how to get things done.”
“She went after the big banks. She went after the child predators. She went after the for-profit colleges, and she fought for consumers,” Beshear said. “She is tough as nails, and I can tell you personally she is going to be an extraordinary president of the United States of America.”
Beshear also spoke against the partisanship that he said is “out of control in this country.”
“Who you elect matters,” he said. “She is going to move us past all this noise, past all this anger.”
“We’re going to get back to working together to get things done,” he said later, noting that Harris “will move it forward for every single American family with no one left out.”
He said he had worked with Harris on Medicaid reform aimed at reducing maternal mortality rates.
“I don’t want to hear anything about family values or protecting life from Donald Trump or JD Vance,” the 46-year-old Beshear said.
He said when he first met Harris, she spent time talking with his children and has always asked about them in every conversation they have had since then.
“It just burns me up when I see JD Vance out there attacking a loving stepmom for not having biological kids, saying she doesn’t care about the future of this country,” he said. “I could tell that he wasn’t raised with the same Kentucky or Iowa values” that we have..
In a brief pre-event interview with The Register’s political reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel, Beshear said any debate with Vance “would admittedly be a little bit personal. This is a guy that used to come a couple weeks a summer, at best, to Kentucky and then wrote a book claiming to know us, claiming to understand our culture.”
Vance has said his ties to Appalachia are part of his background and “origin story.”
Beshear, who agreed to come to Iowa Saturday night several weeks ago, took another jab, telling the Des Moines Register: “Batman has an origin story. Fictional characters have origin stories. Real people have childhoods and upbringings, and it just shows you how fake this is.”
He reiterated that during his speech, telling the crowd, “JD Vance ain’t from Kentucky, he ain’t from Appalachia, and he ain’t gonna be your vice president.”
Beshear touted his past vetoes of anti-LGBTQ legislation, vetoes of anti-abortion legislation and his executive order restoring voting rights for many non-violent offenders in Kentucky.
“I am a proud pro-union governor. I am a proud pro-public education governor. I am a proud pro-choice governor. I am a proud pro-diversity governor,” he said. “Because folks, DEI is not a four-letter word. It is a three-letter acronym for values that are found in the Bible that teach us how to treat each other and not to hate on other people.
“And I’m a governor who believes you should be able to love and marry whoever you choose. And now I am a proud pro-Kamala Harris for president governor.”
Beshear took jabs at Trump’s “multiple bankruptcies and 34 felony convictions.”
“But when JD Vance looks in the mirror, he doesn’t see any conviction at all,” Beshear quipped.
He said Trump’s policies would strip health care from people who need it and slash taxes for the rich. He pointed out that Trump brags about the Roe v. Wade decision being overturned.
“Donald Trump stripped constitutional rights from half of Americans, and I think we ought to strip him of the opportunity of a second term,” he said.
Beshear told the crowd Democrats can win by “staying true to our Democratic values and always doing what’s right.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2024 at 6:53 PM.
